Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-10-14
"TRE DECAY OF STATESMAN
SHTPO

Under the above caption the New Or
leans Picayune publishes q long, labored
| and lugubrious editorial in which it Is
argued that the trainers of the constitu-
ton were not only the ablest coDgrega-
| ton of American statesmen the country
ever produced, but that they were greater
than any gathering of statesmen ever
| witnessed in this or any other land at any
time, and from thst day to this, the
standard of craftsmanship has been fall
| ing lower and lower inlmournful descent
until, at present, all our great men are
employed in engineering giant monopolies
and railroad pools, and the offices are
held by mere experts and INSCRIPTIONS
manipulators OF the party machine.
There is something generous and unself-
ish in modestly minimizing the claims of
the present to greatness and in magnify
ing the claims of the past. The "good
old times" and recollection of them has
always exercised mystic influence, land we
are prone to reverently concede to those
who played their parts in the dramas that
have long since passed away, all the
virtues and graces which q gener-
GUS mind can conceive. "When
was boy" pater familias
will observe, "things were Different"
and everybody end everything was much
better than it is now. "Things were
different in my time; people never
thought of one-fourth the wickedness Of
these days, and as for able men, look at
the list of old heroes" our dear old
lieves what she says. Candidly and with
all Difference to those illustrious founders
of cur government, It must be said that
with all their wisdom, eloquence and
learning they would cut but sorry fig
are in comparison to the statesmen OF to-
day. II to be statesman means to IN
derstand the science of government, is it
too much TO say that the man of average
intelligence of the present day is more Of
statesman than any OF those gentlemen
who assembled IN the city OF Philadelphia
for one thing and who performed an
,ther2-who were sent to arrange for 8
system OF acknowledgements and who,
on arrival, made that q mere incident,
and the fabric of constitutional govern
ment the object Of their labors. Is it,
indeed, too much to assert that more
craftsmanship has been learned in the
last 100 years than was ever known to
the world before? Perhaps it is,
but assertions but little less ex-
treme could be sustained by the facts.
To these pioneers must be given the
credit of discovering and formulating
system Of constitutional government. 1t
was bold and magnificent undertak-
ing, and well was the task performed.
They had no guides but their own ideas
of expediency and justice, and these were
mere speculations, in many instances
crowded and crYstallizediinto shape and
form by the surging waves of an irresisti-
BILE necessity. They did not create the
constitution; they simply resped it. 1t
was sown and grown in the fruitful ext
gencies Of the times. 1t has served the
purposes for which it was intended, but 1t
is rot clear that system of government
varying radically from the present would
not have done quite as well. It's praises
have been ''penned by poets and by
sages" it is true, and we are very much
obliged to them for their kindness, but its
chief strength is and always has been ia
the unwavering allegiance yielded by the